SoxSignatures

I'm betting he pitches a few games in Portland at the end of this year, starts next year in Portland, is called up to Pawtucket earlier in the year, then makes a spot start in Boston near the end of the year. This of course all assuming he keeps pitching well at each level. The Sox haven't really rushed a pitcher to the majors at all since Craig Hansen, and I think they learned their lesson on that one. My best guess is Barnes makes his MLB debut next August/September, and is in the starting rotation for good starting the beginning of the 2014 season at age 24.

Nava has turned into quite a good player as well, do you keep running him out to see if he is legit or have Kalish take away AB's? The Sox are in a tough spot with Lavarnway. They have a logjam of definite or potential All-Stars at C/1B/DH with Salty, Gonzo and Ortiz. If you trade Salty or let Ortiz walk after this year, now Lavarnway has the pressure to replace those guys as they are all very productive right now. If either Ortiz or Salty were struggling it would be much easier to make the call.

I would enjoy watching the Sox with this lineup: CF Ellsbury 2B Pedroia 1B Gonzalez DH Ortiz 3B Middlebrooks LF Crawford (Maybe? otherwise Sweeney or Ross) C Lavarnway RF Kalish SS Iglesias

But who sits in Portland with the crowded OF of Brentz, Linares, Tejeda, Hazelbaker and Hissey? There isn't a lot of playing time to go around there. While Bradley absolutely deserves the promotion, sometimes the politics of dealing with these kids fragile egos has to come into play. What would make sense is to move Linares back to AAA, then you'd create a spot for Bradley in Portland. Of course that moves the log-jam to AAA where Kroeger and Bermudez aren't exactly flourishing.

New to the site, but I've been a big Red Sox fan since the mid 90's. I currently collect Red Sox Autographs and have a project of collecting an autograph from every player to ever play an inning with the Sox. I'm a LOOOONG way off, but I do currently have 99% of everyone who played for the Sox from 2000-2009 (I only need Urbina, Mike Burns, and Jeremi Gonzalez), as well as plenty of others from other decades. I'm looking to get more active in the Sox Fan community to try to help my project along by trading with fellow autograph collectors or selling some of my extras of to those who might not get a chance to catch the Sox MLB and MILB players in person. Feel free to send along an questions/comments or anything else! Look forward to chatting with everyone here!